President Bola Tinubu has directed a full forensic investigation into the creation of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) and other fake agencies discovered within the system of the Federal Government.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, made this known on Wednesday while briefing State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The meeting, which Tinubu presided over, was the first FEC session since June 29.
Oyedele said the decision was based on updates made to the President on the investigation carried out by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission (ICPC).
He said the investigation showed it was not an isolated case, and the President ordered a wider review of government processes and controls.
“That is to do with the fake agency that is called the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, Oyedele said. Mr President gave us the updates about the work that the ICPC has done, and as a consequence of that, the council has directed that we commission a forensic investigation that will look into our processes, our procedures, internal control weaknesses that allow some of these things to happen, because the findings discovered that we indeed have additional fake agencies.
“The important thing is to find out what went wrong, how it can be prevented, and how we can strengthen our systems going forward. You build systems when you find problems, you deal with them decisively and that’s exactly what Mr President and council have directed today.”
Oyedele said Tinubu directed that the investigation should cover the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) as well.
He said the discovery of fake government agencies raised fears that fictitious workers may be on the Federal Government payroll.
“Mr President directed that the review should extend to IPPIS, because if you have fake agencies, you most likely have fake employees,” Oyedele further stated.
“We can’t afford to have fake people hanging around in a country where you would have seen Mr President doing everything to ensure we enhance payroll, salaries and wages. “It hurts our ability to pay our people well, who are doing the hard work.”
The minister said other salaries and allowances for civil servants were paid from subsidy savings and increased revenue of ₦9.495 trillion.
He said the amount was more than the actual savings the Federal Government realized from removing the petrol subsidy.
Oyedele said the investigation would also look into how the fictitious agencies obtained administrative and Treasury Single Account codes within the Federal Government system.
He said that the fake entities had reached the point of having accounts, but no government money was paid into them.
The minister added: “They were able to register and get an administrative code and a TSA code. “The only thing we didn’t do was put any money into those accounts.
But it’s gone too far to even reach that level. “The idea now is we want to find out what went wrong and strengthen the system.”
He said the Attorney-General of the Federation and his ministry have been directed to liaise with the relevant government institutions to address the issue from administrative, accounting and governance perspectives.
Idris Speaks On ICPC’s Findings –
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said the ICPC findings had shown that the problem went beyond the fake Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council.
Idris said investigators had identified at least two other fictitious agencies operating within the system.
Idris said, “The President was informed that it is not only about the so-called Presidential Foreign Promotion Council and the fake DG that was there, but there were at least two other fake agencies that were in that process.
“So what the President said was that this is not only about accounting, it is also about the administrative looseness that was discovered by the ICPC.
Idris said that Tinubu had directed the Attorney-General and the Finance Minister to jointly review the administrative and accounting procedures of the government and to engage the services of professional audit firms for a comprehensive forensic review.
The minister said the goal was to make sure the loopholes that allowed the scandal to happen would be closed forever.
“So that we have a forensic, total evaluation of this system, with a view to plugging this once and for all, so we don’t have this national embarrassment again,” he added.
“I want you to know that this isn’t something that just happened now. Perhaps this goes back farther than the President was in office.
“The President is not just looking at this, he is looking at the possibility that this may also have occurred elsewhere and trying to find a solution that will block this from recurring going forward.